If you don't mandate anything, then they're going to build the dirty one.
So what kind of laws would lead to the orbital option being preferred over the ground-based clean option?
If you don't mandate anything, then they're going to build the dirty one.
So what kind of laws would lead to the orbital option being preferred over the ground-based clean option?
Well, arguably from the get go an orbital datacenter would be better. If launch costs were low enough I would say that as much industry as possible should be moved off planet, and we should make earth into a garden?
We're still doing all the mining and manufacturing on Earth, and there's so much empty land. The final product of self-powered datacenter is among the lowest priority of things to get away from us, and not an effective place to spend environmental mitigation money. And then when they re-enter they pollute pretty badly.